thedwork

that reads like a nice little advertisement for alexander and his group that you mention. you realize that the competition you refer to was nearly 20 years ago, right? still feeling raw over that is a bit much. let it go. plus, 4 of th 5 judges listed for that year were Benny Carter, Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess, and Jackie McLean. i think they know a little bit about playing "in the tradition" that you talk about. i prefer Redman. haven't heard too much alexander, but what i've heard didn't make an impression. very good player but not much of an impression. to my ear, Redman seems to be much more "in the moment."

I take your point about "a good amount of youngish tenor players who listened/studied [branford] intently," but has jazz come to a place where one can be "a terrific player" and be "almost recognizable"? (My emphasis.) It's been my experience over the years, and my assumption (based on that experience) that perhaps excepting figures who worked almost exclusively in ensemble settings (e.g. lead trumpeters, lead alto players, etc.) in jazz every terrific player was readily recognizable as that particular player, though of course not every readily recognizable player was terrific. yeah - oops. note the time of my edit in that posting you quoted (before your response). you must've been responding while i was fixing my mistake in my post: omitting the word "instantly" before recognizable. that's a funny coincidence. anyway, i think bran is recognizable but it may take me a few bars. hence, almost instantly. i certainly don't think he's as distinct as a hodges or rollins, but for me that doesn't discount anyone from being a possible influence or a terrific player. there are gradations... and as far as ratliff goes, he's not my favorite music writer either. he's ok. i dig chinen when it comes to the times. i like his style and attitude. also - as far as these types of top ten lists, they're silly and fun and never to be taken too seriously. but everyone here knows that...

totally agreed. branford is a terrific player and is almost instantly recognizable. and like you said, i've also known a good amount of youngish tenor players who listened/studied him intently. also, i think lots of people listened to his quartet (defunkt now, i guess?) to hear joey and tain as much as (or more than...) for bran. so there may be some unintended influence strictly through osmosis (not a joke). the two cds by him that i own and listened to quite a bit - The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born (Hurst!!!) and Requiem - i feel would be welcome in any jazz listeners collection and listened to often. great music. i haven't been blown away by everything i've heard by him or his quartet, but when they're on, it's tough to beat, and i find bran becoming more and more distinctive. p.s. - i don't know anything about strickland yet

rye bread.

thanks a lot for putting this up here clifford! i'm looking forward to printing this out tomorrow and reading. Bill Dixon is the man!

i'm here to check out Bright Moments's awesome picture of Goldie!

yeah! watching her check out her mom's award speech was priceless. way cool...

yeah

yup. not the most exciting match, but some good stuff. i'm thinking wosniacki is a keeper. she'll be around making trouble for a long time. she's got a great game. if she can get a net game, she'll probably be number 1 at some point.

well that was definitely an odd set. i felt like wosniacki played much smarter even handed tennis than kim, but somehow still lost the set. i hope she picks it up...

big time!

yup. and wosniacki taking that tough game to break so she can serve for the set is tough. good tennis though. i assume it'll pick up for the 2nd set or maybe a 1st set tie break?

yeah. pretty much. but wosniacki taking 3 in a row to be up a break is pretty cool. i think it's gonna be a good match. i'm hoping for a 3-setter. both of these players have such strong ground strokes and really play w/ trategy and try to construct points. going back to it...

i've been watching tennis consistently for 35 years and i've never, ever, seen an outburst like that. they played it over in slow-mo after the match got called (code violation unsportsman-like conduct for a point which happenned to be match point, after she'd already been called earlier in the match for a racquet abuse violation...). she went nuts on that lineperson. f-bombs all over and saying she was gonna jam her ball down her throat, blah blah blah... then she went back for more! very ugly. as far as i know there's no precedent. that was insane. serena fucked up something royal and she deserved the point being taken away and probably more... all that being said, what the fuck was that linesperson thinking?!?!#$%^& worst call in the history of tennis! unfuckingbelievable. that shit is so fucked up all the way around. i can't believe it. did i really just see all that? WTF???!!!!!! Lovely? i believe the word you're looking for is HOT. and she's an excellent player. could be a great final. looking forward to it.

heard him on Pandora while at work the other day and was blown away. wanted to share him w/ the board and see if anyone here is familiar with him. Listen To Him Here At His Website or: i'd love to hear from anyone who has info on how to get a hold of his earlier solo recording. enjoy...

i know it's great for helping things grow and etc etc etc... but right now i hate rain...

quite plainly when you write that critics have "no standards" what you really mean is they don't have "your standards." what a drag reading that kind of blanket statement, self-absorbed horseshit. at the same time, it's interesting that you say you'd only consider the advice of people with 'no standards' when it's about something you know nothing about. now that's a genuine example of actually having no standards. good job flat5...

that's actually not a bad idea. but don't tell the republicans. they'll start screaming about deregulation... (oops... sorry. non-political discussion). i had the enviable pleasure of being assigned the review of the American Idol (AI) Tour in Albany, NY last year for the local schenectady newspaper. excerpt: "Reality TV's biggest phenomenon brought its well known brand of verisimilitude to the Times Union Center Wednesday night. Keeping it 'real' at the show were David Cook and nine other high place finishers for the season. [giant cut of nearly entire body of review to get to the point...] But the real star of the show was - the Show. Stage runways, multiple large projection screens, MTV-style camerawork, screaming tweens, embarrassed parents, huge arena space, AI theme song introduction to the program - it was all there and it was all encompassing. But there's no escaping the duality of AI reality. These idols are linked to an increasingly tangled web of corporate cross-marketing. The spectacle is awash in a culturally pervasive haze of mindless branding: Get the can of Coke into the hands of the rock star who sang on AI and place their song on a Universal Studio soundtrack with an eye toward AT&T ring-tone rights to drive sales of the "tie-in" McDonald's cup placement which helps promote the Simon & Schuster tween book sales and starts buzz for the Disney Channel spin-off television show. And don't forget that the 2008 tour is sponsored by Pop-Tarts: Kellogg's suger-coated toaster pastries. The show was put on so professionally, however, that it almost makes you forget about all that other stuff. Almost." i had fun writing that and i had fun at the show. imo, knowing what's really happening (marketing, not always a very high level of musicality, etc...) - and enjoying the program - are not mutually exclusive things. it's television. anyway, i think degeneres is a fucking riot. i like her style, she makes me laugh, i think she's a great choice. American Idol is about choosing a Pop Star; it's not Eastman School Of Music's auditions for big band. i don't watch the show too regularly, but i'll sit down and check it out a couple times if i'm home and it can be fun. and anyone who doesn't get a laugh out of the early rounds w/ all the freaks making asses out of themselves has a very different sense of humor than myself. that stuff is the direct descendent of The Gong Show and that show blew my mind when i was growing up. i recommend the movie Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind for anyone wanting to see what a lot of this 'reality' tv is coming out of.

can i apply for that position?

looking forward to watching Oudin play today/tonight. haven't seen her yet...

wow! this is some fine tennis...

i've been having the same issue for a while now. thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooo much!

agreed. it's no doubt heartfelt and kinda fun to read, but it doesn't feel like a very well thought out response to my ear. as poetry it's ok, as a real world response to the "jazz is dead" freak show, it's next to meaningless. and i think Payton is a fine player. i haven't gone through this whole thread (almost...) but it looks like nobody put up Nate Chinen's Response yet. i may be in the minority here, don't know, but i prefer his music writing to almost any other music writer for The Times and thought his response to Teachout was a good one. i particularly liked this: "But there’s a wealth of anecdotal evidence to the contrary, as many... responding mainly to Mr. Teachout, have been quick to point out... Scratch anywhere past the surface and you might begin to wonder whether the likes of Mr. Teachout and Mr. Gioia don’t see young people listening because they don’t know where to look." i tend to agree with this from my personal experience. the problem may relate to what i've heard referred to as "option anxiety." there's actually so many places to look for music these days and so many people putting music out, it's daunting to think of the effort involved in sifting through the glut to get at the goods. it may simply be easier to say, "Can't find it. Must not be there. Dead i guess. I can relax now." problem solved. time for dinner. the whole 'jazz is dead,' and it's corollary debate/hypothesis/argument/wankfest "what is jazz?" is a giant yawn as far as i'm concerned. there's a ton of great music and musicians out there right now. i honestly feel that anyone who doesn't realize this is simply lazy or has an agenda which the "jazz is dead" argument fuels. yawn... and this: ...kills me every time. right on Hot Ptah. i've always had a big problem with the term "America's classical music" being used to refer to 'jazz.' why use the term "American classical music" to mean jazz? is it so that people will subconsciously elevate their perception of what jazz music is to what classical music means in most Americans' minds, since the term "classical" in our culture, in regards to music, has come to mean 'high brow' or 'fine' or 'intelligent' etc...? or at least this is how the "bureaucrats" you may be speaking of may see/use the term. to me, this is a gross exercise in un-necessary ass-kissing. i think this may happen with many jazz lovers unwittingly, even to themselves. but any jazz lover who feels the need to attach the term 'classical' to the music they love, so as to give it some extra 'cache' or legitimacy, is sadly missing the point of the music. status is as far removed from the true meaning of any music as is the recipe for mixing rubber for tires. if the music is great, it will be great regardless of the term that's used to designate it. what do we think elitist, aristo[bureau]cratic, classical musicians (oh they're out there boy...) say behind closed doors amongst themselves about the jazzers calling their music 'classical?' they laugh and snub their noses. and in this case we're giving them reason to and that's ironic and pathetic. we don't have to use their term to feel that our music is legitimate on any level. i suppose you could argue that the word 'classical' has meanings aside from our associations w/ composers like Bach, Mozart, Copland, etc... but you're kidding yourself if you think that's not what everyone in this country thinks of when someone says classical while referring to music. and that's not a bad thing. classical, jazz, folk, old-timey, bluegrass, gospel, rock, etc... they're just words signifying a general style. what was i talking about? oh yeah - fucking Blue Note man! why don't they just stick to jazz artists? R&B/Soul is dead...

oh well. couple saved match points. this probably doesn't bode well for Venus. we'll see...